Art
by LarryKoopa78
Summary: What is art? A presentation of illusions and ideas? Or a specific form? Join Ludwig and Bowser Jr as they try to convince each other that their own unique art is superior and more 'fine' than regular art. Who will win this artistic battle of wit and skill? And in the end, will one triumph over the other, or will they see the aesthetic concepts behind everyday reality as art?


**Firstly, most of us know of Ludwig as a musical genius, so he would fit nicely in a story concerning art. Bowser Jr was also a good character choice for me because he does have a knack for scribbling and drawing. Really, I only consider those two of all the koopalings to have an art of some sort.**

**Note: I do not own Mario or any related themes**

**Art**

**By: LarryKoopa78**

On a late summers day in the mushroom kingdom, where the sun had only a few hours to shine upon the land before setting behind the vast bodies of water surrounding the continent, the sounds of children, particularly that of Toads, were a prominent feature around Toad Town as shops owners were serving their last customers of the day and closing up for a good night's rest.

So focused on playing, closing and relaxing, the toads of the village couldn't be bothered to look for any of Bowser's minions on such a fine evening, instead they bathed in the sun's fading light before darkness would fall upon the town.

This worked to Bowser Jr.'s advantage.

Back at Bowser castle, no longer than an hour earlier, the koopalings and their father had shared their last meal of the day together, supper, and with bedtime not far off, Bowser had allotted all eight of his children a short amount of time to do as they pleased until they would have to go to bed. Each child would go off into some area inside or out the castle, but their activities were meaningless and only helped pass the time, all of them except Jr.

Lying in the bushes on top of the hill overlooking the village of toads, Jr. was perched in this position observing the small and intricate details that lay in between the many houses and establishments, all the way to Peach's castle. Equipped with a canvas, variety of colours and brushes, Jr. painted the scene as he saw it, colours of many shades and large expressive images were embedded onto the canvas as Jr. took the vision of Toad town and transferred it onto a piece of thick paper with strokes of his magic paintbrush. Rarely did he get the chance to see such an interesting sight, Bowser castle was also very fascinating but lacked many colours and appeared somewhat lifeless, Toad town and the princess's castle was a massive display of artistic depth mixed in with bright exuberant colours that simply outshone the castle of Koopa, and Bowser Jr. loved nothing more than colour and design put together to create a symbol of beauty that was integral to its wondrous derivation, art.

Back at Bowser's castle, Ludwig Von Koopa, the oldest son of the king, was immersed in his music. Any free time that was bestowed upon him was guaranteed to be used for playing the piano, or simply losing himself in the vast and expansive world of music. To Ludwig, music was harmony, a harmony of continuous rhythms, rhythms of smooth flowing groups of sound that were organized in a specific way so that they work together to create a united whole symbolizing pure and utter beauty, that was music, that was art. Placed on the piano stool, Ludwig opened a large folder of many musical pieces that he had retrieved a little earlier and shuffled through them looking for a suitable piece. _"What should I play? Perhaps a Sonata to calm down the feelings of tenseness contained in these castle walls, or a faster more upbeat piece to lift my spirit up" _He thought while searching.

Just as he found the exact thing he was looking for, his father's voice boomed through the hallways and up to Ludwig's room breaking the deep state of relaxation he was in. "TIME FOR BED! STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING AND GET YOURSELFS TO BED NOW!" Bowser shouted throughout the castle, Ludwig sighed, no music would come today but the anticipation of getting back to it the next morning was massive, Ludwig packed away his music, tucked his stool under the piano and thought, _"Until tomorrow, wait for me" _Ludwig laid one hand on the smooth wood of his piano and walked out to prepare for bed.

**The next morning**

"Ludwig!" Bowser shouted at his oldest son who was sitting in his room playing his piano. Sounding more irritated than usual, even though his regular demeanor was quite grumpy, it was obvious that Bowser was upset at something.

"What is it father?" Ludwig asked slightly annoyed that his precious music time was being interrupted,

"I need to speak with about something"

"Well make it quick, unless you're staying to listen"

"Forget that! Jr.'s not here, the guards told me that he wasn't seen last night and you were the last person with him before he disappeared, what happened?"

Ludwig looked up into his father's paranoid face wanting to say something that would make Bowser happy but the truth would do far from that. "He went out last night to do something, just after dinner" Ludwig responded quietly, not looking forward to his father's reaction. Bowser stared at Ludwig for a while then turned around and stomped out without a word, "Wait! Don't you want hear my…" his voice trailed off into silence as Bowser departed. _"Hmm.." _Ludwig thought, _"Perhaps I should get father a little more cultured, that would certainly help, he's in desperate need of refinement"_.

Bowser left the stone floors behind his stomping path in pieces as he headed for the front of the castle, from there he would navigate down the long winding path elevated from the massive magma pools below and start his search for Jr., his castle was very stupidly built in a highly volcanic area but the only thing Bowser would say to that was, _"Too bad, I'm the king and people do what I say"_.

As his rampage led him to the front gates, he encountered the other koopalings, wandering down the castle corridors as if looking for something. They saw him and ran up very quickly with Larry saying the first words, "Hey dad! Roy's been messing with me and Lemmy, he beats us and then says it wasn't him!"

"Shaddup ya twerp! Don't listen to him pa, he's just gone delusional again" Roy interjected before Bowser could reply, Lemmy then came up bouncing on his favourite ball, as he was about speak Roy kicked the ball out from under his feet causing Lemmy to fall flat on his face, Larry helped him up as Roy chuckled, amused at the torment he had just delivered.

"Did you see that? That's what me and Lemmy have been putting up with all morning! Here, Lemmy will vouch for me as a fellow victim of that beast!" Larry yelled pointing at Roy who had put on an innocent looking face. Lemmy got up and pulled himself together, shaking his head and stroking the colourful Mohawk on top until it was back in place.

"Larry's right! Roy's been pushing us around just for the fun of it, we just want to play but he's spoiling the fun!" Lemmy shouted, his tone equally agitated to Larry's, Bowser looked at them for a moment not sure what to say but eventually just shrugged, "Roy's just playing with you, he's older than both of you so he can do whatever" Bowser said carelessly shocking Larry and Lemmy but making Roy very happy, "Roy's not older than me!" Lemmy cried

"How could you say that?" Larry exclaimed but receiving no reaction from their father.

"Oh yeah, I always thought Roy was older because he was bigger, you're just so tiny Lemmy it makes you look so young" Bowser said, getting impatient with the conversation that was slowing him down with his search for Jr.

"Don't you even know anything about us? We're you're kids!" Lemmy shouted out but was quickly muffled by Roy who put him in a headlock and gave him a 'playful' noogie with Larry looking on in horror knowing he was next.

Just as Bowser stepped forward to break up the small tussle between the two brothers, Jr. marched through the front door covered in a variety of exotic colours, as if he had painted himself, and carried a large frame with a canvas along with several other drawing equipment. Bowser's face lit up with joy to see his youngest son return and rushed over to him allowing Roy to continue torturing Lemmy which made him very happy but Lemmy quite unhappy and Larry very nervous.

"Father! I've got this awesome picture to show you! Last night I…" Jr. started but didn't finish as Bowser loomed over him waiting for an explanation. "Uhhh, well, I, you know…"

"ENOUGH!" Bowser roared, "What were you doing out there all night! I hope it was something constructive"

"Well, I was at Toad town and…" for the third time, the remaining words never left Junior's mouth as his dad interjected again except in a lighter tone, "You were causing trouble? Mayhem? Fracas? Disorder? All of the above?" Bowser spat out the words faster than the speed of sound causing Junior to stay silent for a while.

Obviously uncomfortable with his father's well developed aptitude for interrogating, Junior shifted nervously and scratched his head thinking of how to tell Bowser that he had been out painting pictures rather than spreading anarchy as his father would have preferred. "Well come on! Tell me!" Bowser continued in a more pressing voice, Junior looked him in the eye and said, "I was painting a picture of Toad town".

Bowser barely moved a muscle for a while as if he didn't believe his own son, "You, what? Painting? Is that what you were doing all night? And why you're covered in paint?"

"Actually, I was also out spraying graffiti on the walls of Toad town, that's why I'm covered in colours that don't belong on me".

Bowser seemed a little happier at this, his son wasn't out bringing chaos to the bottom-feeders of the mushroom kingdom, but at least he was vandalizing, and anything that dispersed unhappiness made Bowser happy.

"Well good work! That'll teach those shroom heads not to mess with my boy!"

"Yes father, I gave them a warning they won't soon forget" Junior said in a sarcastic tone, he wanted to retreat to his room to add his newest picture to his well-established collection and his father was in the way of that.

"Hey bro! Let's see the picture!" yelled Roy who just stepped up, with Lemmy still tightly clenched in his grasp,

"Yeah, show the egghead your drawing while I make a quick getaway" Larry said also. Junior ignored both of them and rushed past nearly dropping his canvas, Bowser looked on and marveled at his youngest son, "He'll make a fine king one day" he said proudly, "Who?" asked the very confused Roy, whose grip had loosened on little Lemmy allowing him to escape but Roy was completely oblivious. Bowser walked off leaving Larry with his very abusive older brother, "Hey, where'd that little twerp go?" Roy asked looking at his empty arms, Larry at this point started to slowly shuffle away but Roy noticed immediately.

"How about you and me have a little fun?" Roy sneered slowly walking up to Larry, Larry turned around in the blink of an eyed and bolted away with Roy not far behind, "It's time to RUN!" he shouted at the other observing koopalings who in turn followed suit and scattered in several directions with their hulking brute of a brother hot on their tails, literally.

The commotion going on at the bottom floor was no concern to Ludwig, the sound of his music turned the annoying noise coming from below his room into silence, his siblings could bash each other's brains out for all he cared, because in the end, his music would keep going.

Putting the finishing touches on his lineup for the performance he had planned to give his father, Ludwig finally decided on a finishing piece, the only thing left to do was to get his father to actually come and listen which would prove to be a herculean task. Striding out the door, with a spring in his step, Ludwig merrily went on his way to collect his un-cultured dad, excited at the possibilities of change that could occur in Bowser's demeanor.

Nearly a second after stepping out the door Ludwig saw a moving figure coming towards him, it was small but appeared to be multi-coloured, like a moving painting. The image quickly upped its pace and raced to Ludwig, unable to move in time, he and the figure collided sending sheets of music and drawing equipment everywhere.

"Ouch!" the figure said,

"Ouch indeed!" Ludwig responded, "What were you thinking you fool? Even if your pitiful little body can't do so much as put a mark on my body that was quite a stupid thing to do!"

"Just be quiet will you? You're inability to act could have cost me this!" the figure said, but Ludwig knew by voice that this was Junior, who was holding up a large picture of colourful swirls, dots and blotches.

Ludwig looked at it for a while, unimpressed, and peered down at his little brother who he deemed disillusioned and misinformed. "Well nothing of value would have been lost if you're pretty little picture got ruined" Ludwig said in a frivolous tone, Junior's face turned irritated as he knew Ludwig was treating him like a baby.

"Now listen here! This picture is the result of many hours spent looking at the expansive and detailed town of toads, and transferring that essence to paper, on no account can you mock me, or my art!", Ludwig craned his neck slightly and appeared confused, as if he couldn't comprehend Junior's words, "Spending the whole night just looking at a town to aimlessly copy it onto paper and transferring essence are two completely different things, original works are more acceptable in my opinion anyway"

Junior sighed at his brother's incompetence and replied, "If an artist doesn't receive high levels of inspiration, then his ideas become dull, Toad town is said to be very exquisite, a magnificent display worthy of my sentiment"

"Of course, such inferiority only is, not at all like my music, which boasts a high level of fine artistic superiority"

"What? You call those random noises fine art? Fine art is something wonderful that is embedded in time forever, eternal beauty"

"Your works involve the same skilled ability as I, I respect you for that, but true art is a single fleeting moment of beauty, in music, a note is art by itself, but many put together each acting only once, is a higher level of fine art, many works of art amalgamated into one pure essence of beauty is fine art, and that is music"

Junior gazed into his brother's expressionless face, he knew Ludwig was always overconfident in his works, but now he was pushing the boundary, music is not the only art, Junior knew this well, but Ludwig obviously didn't.

"Ludwig, does your presence cause irritation itself or do you make a conscious effort?" Junior said in an mad tone, a more agitated sound to his voice would help prove the passion he felt for his art, but Ludwig countered equally as passionate for his art, "Well I suppose I was right to assume it would make you unhappy when I told you the truth" Ludwig said as he closed the door to his room and drifted away down the hall while continuing to show his ectopic attitude, "My fine art is music, entirely different to your little drawings, huh!" and with that Ludwig's back was to Junior's face, slowly getting smaller as he walked down the long hallway with Junior giving him the evil eye all the way. Smiling suddenly Junior realized that Ludwig needed a lesson in art, and Junior was the prime candidate to do it, proceeding to follow Ludwig, Junior prepared his magic paintbrush for its first use since last night.

Meanwhile in the weapon storage area under the castle, Lemmy hid behind the many crates of bob-ombs and bullets bills that had not seen action for a while, in an attempt to hide from his 'playful' brother Roy. While Lemmy knew that Roy was too dumb to come check the various rooms in the castle, he also knew that most of the secret rooms didn't even exist to Roy, and therefore guaranteed Lemmy complete safety. _"Finally, I can get some well-deserved ball bouncing time" _he thought as he hopped on top of his yellow star ball and began jumping all over the room, incidentally, Lemmy failed to take into account that the new bullet bills explode as soon as the hit something whether they are fired out a cannon at Mario, or fall a few inches to the ground, which, by the overflowing crates of them, was bound to happen. But Lemmy just continued bouncing around, happy to have escaped his bully of a brother.

Larry on the other hand had just escaped Roy's clutches, and now scoured the castle for a suitable hiding place, perhaps he would find Lemmy and they could play inside today, or maybe he would shut himself in the great library and read, it was a favourite pastime of his. Wandering down the halls, pondering his options, he heard a faint noise coming from beneath him just as he came across his room, putting his ear to the floor so he could properly distinguish the noise as something worth investigating or not, Larry could make out a voice, along with a squeaky noise, as if someone was bouncing on a ball, Lemmy.

The little koopaling was under Larry, which room? No idea, but Larry was determined to find his older brother, searching the nearby walls, he felt the cold slabs of stones for any discrepancies that might indicate a hidden doorway, Larry felt a small bulge in the wall, pushing on it, and it retracted with a _Click! _While a doorway became visible in the stone wall revealing a series of steps leading down into a deep dark room filled with crates and more crates. The bouncing noise became louder as Larry walked down the steps into the room which he never knew about until now, and peered down into the darkness. Not far off, a dim light, illuminating some of the room, could be seen and showed that the crates were overflowing with bullet bills and bob-ombs. _"Of course! This must be the secret weapons storage area dad always talks about, I've heard about it enough time, but never seen it, amazing" _Larry thought, gazing at the piles of explosives and projectiles, Iggy would go mad with glee upon seeing this, but Larry had a different fascination with it, the sleek outer appearance looked marvelous and the bullet bills menacing eyes cast a spell on him. Too busy lost in his own thoughts and mesmerized by the sight of all this, the sound of bouncing became considerably louder, and due to the faint lighting in the room, Lemmy was bound to crash into something he couldn't see. Rolling happily on his ball, Lemmy had decided to turn things up a notch, now hyper with excitement, Lemmy's velocity had increased two fold, with his ball squeaking louder than before and his mind set on breaking his speed record, Lemmy rounded a corner compiled of several crates fashioned into a barricade and caught sight of his younger brother too late.

Whilst the commotion under the main floor was well underway, the one on the main floor was yet to commence. Walking past Larry's room, Ludwig was on his way to retrieve his father so that he could convince him to listen to some good music in the hopes of changing his attitude. Passing by his younger sibling's room, Ludwig noted to give the same treatment to Larry, to help culture him a little and lift that constant melancholy mood he was in.

"Hey! You!" A sudden voice said from what appeared to be nowhere, Ludwig stopped and looked around for the source but saw nothing, he scratched his head, stumped for a moment but shrugged it off and kept walking.

"I'm talking to you! Listen!" this time the voice was loud enough and clear enough to mean that someone was talking to him, but Ludwig still spotted no one, was this a trick? Who was responsible? Ludwig pondered what was going on and then it hit him, a brush from behind whacked him on the head splattering paint everywhere and colouring Ludwig in several shades of blue.

Taken by surprise and very unhappy, Ludwig twirled around to face his assaulter whom he would give the beating of their life to, with his fists ready to connect into the trespasser's face, Ludwig's punch went through an empty space and a giggle could be heard behind him. Another swish and Ludwig was coloured in red along with blue, baffled and angry, Ludwig frantically searched the area for the mystery attacker but still saw nothing. Then, standing two feet away, Junior appeared from thin air holding his large paintbrush with the brush in the air and the opposite end on the ground. Ludwig stared at Junior trying to figure out his trick, that darn magic brush of his did unimaginable things sometimes, Junior obviously painted himself in a camouflage colour that disguised him to well to be seen, Junior returned the confused glare and began to mock, "Ludwig, why so blue? Heh"

Ludwig said nothing, Junior was good at making puns, and when he mocked, the puns only made it worse, for those being mocked. "Haven't you red any books on art? Each one will tell you that painting and drawing are the predominate concepts of art" Junior said, stifling a laugh but still giggling.

"You've made your jokes now" Ludwig sneered "Now let's see if you're still laughing, when you see mine!" he shouted ferociously leaping at Junior claws extended prepared to give him a lesson. Junior switched to a defensive stance and held his

brush at the ready, while Ludwig came charging at a rapid pace. Just before the two brothers made impact, something from underneath them made impact, _BOOM! _The loud noise shook the floor violently and put a few cracks in it too, the two brothers were sent flying backwards as the shock of the blast hit them from below, sending Junior skidding across the floor before caroming off a stone pillar which ricocheted him upwards and causing him to bang the ceiling with his head accompanied by an "Ouch!". Ludwig however came into contact with the wall first, slamming into it, he let out a loud "Oomph!" and fell to the floor below, groaning in pain. Neither koopaling was seriously injured, but both were stunned for a while before Ludwig got up first. Shaking his head, he saw Junior on the floor not moving a few feet away. _"Gasp! Junior!" _he thought, racing over to see if his little brother was harmed or not, he lay on the floor breathing slightly but not showing any signs of well-being. Panic stricken, Ludwig shook Junior and shouted at him to get up, Ludwig knew that little blast couldn't have killed him, but in a weakened state, falling the wrong way or smacking his head on something could cause serious permanent injury.

Still frantically trying to wake Junior, Ludwig felt quite guilty, he and Junior wouldn't be like this if they didn't bicker over whose art was better, if Ludwig hadn't insulted Junior about his art then Junior would have had no reason to pursue Ludwig to get him back, and only Ludwig would have suffered for his insolence. It should have been like that, but wasn't, Ludwig looked at Junior, lying on the ground and knelt down beside him. "I take it all back! My art is not the greatest! You were right! You're art is wonderful! Drawing and painting is equal, if not better, to music! Why did I take so much pride in what I did, without acknowledging how amazing your art was! I am a fool! A fool!" Ludwig shouted to the heavens, feeling ashamed for his actions.

Now he had to get Junior some medical attention, looking back down at where Junior was lying, he saw his hand twitch and was very surprised when Junior's eyes popped open and he leaped back onto his feet grinning intensely. "Did you really mean all that Ludwig?" he asked, now waiting for Ludwig's response who was staring blankly at him, as if unable to find his voice. After a few short moments Ludwig smiled and put his hand on his brother's shoulder and said, "Of course, I meant every word".

Junior took Ludwig's hand off his shoulder and replied, "Good, because I feel the same way, bro", Junior and Ludwig laughed, after all that, they were finally able to see the greatness of each-others art, and find respect for the artist doing it.

"Well how about you show me some pieces from your collection, and afterwards I'll treat you to a symphony I just finished writing the other day" Ludwig said, Junior nodded in agreement and the pair walked down the hallway side by side to Junior's room. Suddenly the sound of running could heard behind them, along with what sounded to be a fuse going off, Ludwig and Larry turned around to see what it was and were greeted with the sight of Larry and Lemmy each holding an explosive bob-omb in their hands. Junior jumped at the sight, startled at the explosives that appeared to be going off while Ludwig remained calm but backed away as they came closer. "Hey! What are you doing! Get those things away!" Junior shouted pointing at the bombs in the crazy koopalings hands, Larry and Lemmy ignored them and ran past down to the window shouting over their shoulder: "Just watch!". If he knew any better, Ludwig would say they were insane, but carefully observed as the bombs were thrown out the window by Larry and Lemmy who upon closer examination, were covered in dust and black patches. But all attention was diverted to the explosion that went off outside, as the two bob-ombs ignited and expanded rapidly outward with the blast.

It was beautiful. Two ordinary walking talking explosive bundles were quickly converted into a chrysanthemum of bright light and flares of red and yellow, the display given by the blast was spectacular, and everyone was in awe. Ludwig and Junior were most impressed, it turned out that everything was art, depending on how you saw it, everything was beautiful, but no less beautiful than it was before.

**THE END**

**Thanks for reading! Give me your thoughts on the story and review, also if you wish, tell me about your thoughts on 'art', please review! Thanks!**


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